Coyote Gulch

Friday, February 4, 2005

Pre-emptive War
Juan Cole writing about Lt. Gen. James Mattis says, "One of the reasons that the Neoconservatives are wrong that unilateral war can be used for good, for spreading democracy, is that war brings out the worst in human beings, making some of them sadists and racists. Sometimes it is necessary to fight a war to defend oneself. An elective war is always a mistake. It twists one's own society, and someone else's as well."
"Just as few priests are pedophiles, few soldiers are sadists. Mattis has brought dishonor on the US Marine Corps with his words. Killing is never appropriately called 'fun.' I think he should resign."
Mattis is quoted by SignOnSanDiego.com as saying, "Actually, it's a lot of fun to fight. You know, it's a hell of a hoot. ... It's fun to shoot some people. I'll be right upfront with you, I like brawling. You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil. You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them."
5:59:47 AM

Colorado Water
Here's a story from the Cortez Journal about the major appropriations bill for water projects across the state this session.
5:42:49 AM

DeLay Rule
The Rocky Mountain News editorial staff thinks that the GOP made an error in this week's purge of the House Ethics committee [February 4, 2005, "Ethics switch gives GOP black eye"]. From the opinion piece, "On every case that comes before the committee - at least those the public hears about - Hastings will be in the unenviable position of having to prove a negative: that he is not a leadership stooge."
5:23:15 AM

Denver May 2005 Election
Denver Election officials are considering making the May election a mail-in only ballot, according to the Denver Post [February 4, 2005, "Panel to rethink use of all-mail ballot in May"]. They will vote today on the issue. From the article, "Two weeks ago, the three-member commission voted 2-1 to have an all- mail ballot. But questions within the commission have arisen as to whether the city could instead use a combination of early voting, precincts and vote centers, which let voters cast ballots at any center in the county. In off-year elections, suburban counties have used all-mail ballots for years, says GOP consultant Katy Atkinson. The result has been higher voter turnout than elections in which voters go to precincts, she said."
5:11:13 AM

Iraqi Election
Here's an article with some early election results from the Denver Post [February 4, 2005, "Shiite political group leads in early tally of Iraqi votes"]. From the article, "The electoral commission made public the results of 1.6 million votes across six provinces in the southern Shiite region of the country. The United Iraqi Alliance took some 1,164,770 of those votes, about 72 percent. Electoral commission officials have said that a little more than 8 million Iraqis voted throughout the country. The partial results suggested that Allawi, a secular Shiite leader, had little hope of being a major player in the new government. His ticket brought in just 274,669 votes, or about 17 percent of the total so far."
5:03:50 AM

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